Hang Loose Flower (standard:humor, 325 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Apr 15 2012	Views/Reads: 2698/0	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Very few, if any, in US know that Banana flower is edible and eaten as a vegetable in Asian culture. Read this to know whether it is worth eating.

Hang Loose Flower 

Subba Rao 

Not many people eat flowers for lunch or dinner for that 

matter.  Banana flower or blossom is an exception particularly in Asian 

culture; it is cooked with curry and eaten with steamed white rice. 

A large cone shaped dark purple flower emerges from top of the 

Banana tree to hang loose and tough like a newly born calf hanging out 

of cow's behind. As the large flower opens slowly over a period of 

time, each rubbery purple red petal drops to the ground exposing layers 

of pale pink florets that slowly develop into young green bananas. As 

young Bananas develop layer by layer around 3 to 4 feet long bunch, the 

plant runs out of food to turn the remaining florets into fruits, 

leaving the residual small cone shaped flower dangling from tip of the 

fruit bunch, at this stage, it is cut off to sell as a vegetable or 

left it to dry to fall off to the ground. 

Preparing Banana flower for cooking is like preparing chicken 

dish starting with a live bird.  Layers of tough petals have to be 

removed to expose the tender pink florets. In a slow and painstaking 

process a tough matchstick look-alike bitter stamina and tasteless 

transparent wing cover from each floret has to be removed to make it 

edible.  When all said and done, hundreds of individual florets with 

stamen and wings removed are ready for cooking after washing with 

buttermilk to remove mild bitterness. As long as somebody else is 

cooking, eating curried Banana flower is a treat. With all the labor 

involved, if curried Banana flower were to be served as a dish in a 

restaurant in USA, its price can top a serving of Fillet Mingnon, an 

expensive cut of steak. If curried Banana flower is labeled with a 

fancy name like ‘Curry Pushpak Paradesi' it could be a good sell with a 

hefty price at a fancy restaurant. 


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